Tag Archives: John Acosta

Teamwork Makes New Leadership Work 

Our new team has gotten off to a flying start. Vice President Acosta and Secretary/Treasurer Kruvand and I have been meeting, talking, working together and working things out. We are really fortunate to have John in the building, bringing his skill, knowledge and experience, and he and I are working closely together on our new roles.  

We are making change, in sync and as a team, even when that change is hard. This month, we made the very difficult decision to externalize some of our in-house services, laying off two employees. In each case, our moves were driven by cost savings, reducing the cost to our members by over half.  These actions were painful, but fiscally necessary. 

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A New Beginning for Inclusion, Transparency 

Congratulations to those of you who participated in the Inaugural Meeting last month.  

In addition to witnessing the swearing in of the officers of the incoming administration by AFM President Gagaliardi, you honored outgoing President O’Keefe by naming her as President Emeritus. You received an upbeat financial report for the Local as work continues to come back in the recording sector. However, the Musicians’ Club report wasn’t so rosy with another large deficit for 2025. We are committed to a process that includes every one of you and urge you to participate in General Membership meetings to be a part of the discussion as we grapple with the finances of our building.  

President Sazer, Vice President Acosta, and I have already begun working as a team and will share some of the duties traditionally handled by the President. 

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John Acosta to be Honored at Black Business Association ‘Salute to Black Music’

We are proud to announce that Local 47 President John Acosta will be honored by The Black Business Association, the oldest ethnic business organization in the State of California, at its annual Salute to Black Music Awards Dinner.

Held in recognition of African American Music Appreciation Month, this year’s theme is “The Business Behind the Music.” The event takes place Tuesday, June 19 at the California African American Museum. A reception opens at 6 p.m., and the program commences at 7 p.m. Continue reading →

President John Acosta Elected to IEB

The new AFM International Executive Board members - including our own President John Acosta - being sworn in at the 100th Convention. (Photo: Bonnie Janofsky)

The new AFM International Executive Board members – including our own President John Acosta – being sworn in at the 100th Convention. (Photo: Bonnie Janofsky)

Exciting news to share from the American Federation of Musicians 100th Convention: Our own Local 47 President John Acosta has been elected to serve on the International Executive Board.

Running on the Team Unity slate, as a member of the IEB Acosta will act as a conduit to bring the concerns of our Los Angeles music community directly to our international leadership. Continue reading →

Members vote YES in the ‘Time Is Now’ Referendum – President’s Report (Feb 2016)

John Acosta

Local 47 President John Acosta wrote the following “Time Is Now” referendum update in his February Overture Online column:

“I am happy to report that our referendum has qualified with over 3,200 Ballots cast! Not only did the referendum qualify, 80% of those ballots cast said ‘yes,’ in an overwhelming majority vote in favor of selling and relocating. What an exciting time for our Union! Continue reading →

The Year at a Glance

John Acosta

President’s Report – December 2015

As 2015 comes to a close I thought it would be appropriate to review the first year of my administration, a little self-analysis if you will. We began the year embarking on a controversial, yet in my opinion overdue, review of our recording agreements. At the January Inaugural meeting the members voted to create a Task Force to review our Film & TV contracts, and to deliberate on whether or not a “buyout” agreement made sense for musicians in our Union. This question has consumed the AFM for many years and has been bandied about in membership meetings, on session breaks, on social media and on the blogs, but never has any administration been brave enough or dumb enough (or both) to formally pose this to the rank and file. After many months of research and discussion, the Task Force made its recommendations to the membership, but most importantly to our International. These recommendations can be found on our website in the members’ area. Continue reading →

From the President’s Desk

An update from Local 47 President John Acosta

Many of you have expressed a desire to know the next steps planned now that the Motion Picture/TV Employment Task Force report was delivered back in April. I urge you to read the officer reports in Overture to stay up to date on all that is going on, but I’d like to take this opportunity to bring you squarely up to the minute on where we are with progress.

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